Sichuan

China launches a spacecraft from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest province Sichuan. The experimental spacecraft will fly around the moon and back to Earth in preparation for the country’s first unmanned return trip to the lunar surface.

US First Lady Michelle Obama performs t’ai chi with students from the Chengdu No 7 High School in Chengdu, in China’s southwest Sichuan province. Michelle Obama arrived in China last week with her mother and daughters to start a seven-day, three-city tour where she will focus on education and cultural exchange.

People crowd on to a bridge during the annual Caiqiaohui event in Mianyang, Sichuan province. People believe that by stepping on to the bridge during the three-day spring event can help them escape tribulations and illnesses.

People mourn as they bury a relative killed in Saturday’s earthquake, in Longmen village, Lushan county, Ya’an, Sichuan province. Hundreds of survivors of the earthquake, which killed nearly 200 people in southwest China, pushed into traffic on a main road on Monday, waving protest signs, demanding help and shouting at police.

A woman comforts a child as residents sleep outdoors as aftershocks continue through the night in Ya’an, China. A powerful earthquake struck the steep hills of China’s southwestern Sichuan province on the morning of April 20, leaving hundreds dead and thousands injured.